Best China Tours with Silk Road

Guilin, an internationally-known historical and cultural city, has long been renowned for its unique karst scenery. Its vicinities are the paradise of hiking, caving, rafting, biking and countryside exploring.

China History

Xia & Shang Dynasty

Many histories believe that Xia Dynasty actually may have existed, although not in the terms depicted the Chinese mythology. The dynasty is claimed to have held power for nearly five centuries from 2200 to 1700 BC, before corrupt and being overthrown by the Shang.

There is more evidence of the existence of the Shang than of Xia. Archaeological finds have shown for certain that a state existed in the Yellow River plain in the present province of Shangdong, Shanxi and Shaanxi, and it held power from 1554 to 1045 BC. It was agricultural society that practiced a form of ancestor worship. It was also marked by the presence of what seems to be caste of high priests who bones. Associated with ancestor worship and divination are the Shang bronze vessels, the surface of which are covered with extraordinarily detailed linear designs. Like Xia before it, the Shang Dynasty fell prey to corruption and degeneracy, and was toppled by the Zhou.